Repetitive and therefore fixed?
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Joanna Kopaczyk
Abstract
This is a pilot study investigating the role of phrasal fixedness in the development of a standardised text type. The linguistic material comes from the Edinburgh Corpus of Older Scots (ECOS), consisting of samples of administrative records from 15th-century Scotland. The corpus has been searched for re-occurring lemmatic bundles, which are the indicators of emerging patterns and standardising usage in the records, developing in the context of linguistic standardisation of Scots. The findings are interpreted with regard to their semantics and function in the records, and indicate that the text type as such was not yet fully standardised in its repertoire of fixed phrases serving a specific purpose. In individual locations, however, one finds a greater degree of consistency and a tendency to develop a local norm. Similarly, in some specific textual functions the lexical fixedness may be present to a larger extent than in others.
Abstract
This is a pilot study investigating the role of phrasal fixedness in the development of a standardised text type. The linguistic material comes from the Edinburgh Corpus of Older Scots (ECOS), consisting of samples of administrative records from 15th-century Scotland. The corpus has been searched for re-occurring lemmatic bundles, which are the indicators of emerging patterns and standardising usage in the records, developing in the context of linguistic standardisation of Scots. The findings are interpreted with regard to their semantics and function in the records, and indicate that the text type as such was not yet fully standardised in its repertoire of fixed phrases serving a specific purpose. In individual locations, however, one finds a greater degree of consistency and a tendency to develop a local norm. Similarly, in some specific textual functions the lexical fixedness may be present to a larger extent than in others.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Editors’ introduction xi
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Part I. Etymology
- Etymology and the OED 3
- On the etymological relationships of wank , swank , and wonky 21
- Base etymology in the historical thesauri of deverbatives in English 29
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Part II. Semantic fields
- The global organization of the English lexicon and its evolution 65
- Repayment and revenge 85
- Semantic change in the domain of the vocabulary of Christian clergy 99
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Part III. Word-formation
- Abstract noun ‘suffixes’ and text type in Old English 119
- The lexicalisation of syncope 133
- Oriented - ingly adjuncts in Late Modern English 147
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Part IV. Textlinguistics, text types, politeness
- Historical text linguistics 167
- Repetitive and therefore fixed? 189
- Politeness strategies in Late Middle English women’s mystical writing 209
- A diachronic discussion of extenders in English remedies found in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850) 223
- “It is with a trembling hand I beg to intrude this letter” 237
- Genre analysis 255
- Index 267
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Editors’ introduction xi
-
Part I. Etymology
- Etymology and the OED 3
- On the etymological relationships of wank , swank , and wonky 21
- Base etymology in the historical thesauri of deverbatives in English 29
-
Part II. Semantic fields
- The global organization of the English lexicon and its evolution 65
- Repayment and revenge 85
- Semantic change in the domain of the vocabulary of Christian clergy 99
-
Part III. Word-formation
- Abstract noun ‘suffixes’ and text type in Old English 119
- The lexicalisation of syncope 133
- Oriented - ingly adjuncts in Late Modern English 147
-
Part IV. Textlinguistics, text types, politeness
- Historical text linguistics 167
- Repetitive and therefore fixed? 189
- Politeness strategies in Late Middle English women’s mystical writing 209
- A diachronic discussion of extenders in English remedies found in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850) 223
- “It is with a trembling hand I beg to intrude this letter” 237
- Genre analysis 255
- Index 267
